Brown Cemetery

Brown Cemetery

 

Locality: Roanoke County                  Temporal Period:                  2nd & 3rd quarters 19th c.

Realty Map:          27.14-2-14                              Cultural Affiliation:              Euro-American

USGS Map:           Roanoke                                Landform:                              Knoll

Grid Locus:            E-4                                          Elevation:                              1120 feet

UTM Easting:       592290                                    Aspect:                                  Southeast

UTM Northing:    4133160

 

Site Dimensions:  12.4 by 15.5 feet

 

Survey Description: Site consists of a cemetery with an unknown number of interments.  Four graves were marked by an inscribed obelisk and four marble footstones enclosed by an iron fence.  The fence measured 12.4 by 5.9 feet. Two or three additional interments, marked by uninscribed fieldstones, were observed immediately northeast of the fence.  Graves inside the fence were oriented to the northeast and those outside the fence were oriented to the southeast. Undulations in the ground surface probably reflect additional graves.  The WPA survey indicates that at least 30 graves were once visible outside the iron fence.  One large cedar tree and periwinkle ground cover were present within the fence, while mowed grass surrounded the fenced enclosure. Periwinkle ground cover extends into a wooded area to the south and east may indicate an area of additional graves.  Site was field inspected, photographed, and headstone inscriptions were transcribed and compared to previous site documentation.  A minimum site size of 12.4 by 15.5 feet was estimated by pacing the horizontal extent of observed graves.

 

Surveyed By:        T. Klatka & D. Richardson

Survey Date:         10/97

 

Field Notes:           _x_Yes   ___No

Photographs:        _x_Yes   ___No

 

Reference(s):         Roanoke Valley Historical Society

                                1986        Roanoke County Graveyards Through 1920.  Privately printed, RVHS, Roanoke.

 

Works Progress Administration of Virginia, Historical Inventory, Roanoke County, Virginia, Document #137.

 

Additional Comments: Assigned temporal period was based on dates inscribed on observed markers.  These dates range from 1843 through 1861.  The presence of uninscribed fieldstone markers may indicate an earlier or later use of the site.  Site is not marked on the USGS map sheet or on realty maps.

 

This cemetery was initially surveyed in 1937 by the Works Progress Administration of Virginia and recorded as the “Brown Graveyard” in Document #137 of the Historical Inventory of Roanoke County, Virginia.  The WPA file provided biographical information for four graves, and stated that only a small part of the cemetery “is within a small iron fence where the Browns are buried.  The rest of the graves are in the open field, and will number about thirty or more.  There are only stone markers and no marks or inscriptions to make any kind of identification.”  The cemetery was also surveyed by the RVHS and documented as the Brown Cemetery (1986: 24).  Biographical information for the same graves listed by the WPA were documented.  This site is not marked on the USGS Roanoke map sheet or on local realty maps.

 

Marker Inscriptions:

 

Joseph C.                               Adaletta                                 George T.                               Benjamin F.

Died 1855                               Died 1861                               Died 1843                               Died 1854

Aged 5 wks.                          Aged 20 mo                           Aged 2 yrs.                           Aged 5 mo.


 

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